- Students from diverse backgrounds take part in Multicultural Schools Cup
- Communicare delivers Active Schools Project to connect youth to sporting clubs
Today more than 200 students from four Perth high schools will compete in the second annual Communicare Multicultural Schools Cup.
Sport and Recreation Minister Mia Davies attended the carnival and encouraged students to join local sporting clubs as a way to stay fit and make new friends.
"This carnival is important for a number of reasons," Ms Davies said.
"Playing a sport or becoming a member of a club not only has enormous health benefits, it also plays a vital role in cultural inclusion and increasing the connectedness of young people to their local community."
Students from the Australian Islamic College campuses in Thornlie and Kewdale, the Fountain College and Lynwood Senior High School's Intensive English Centre took part in the carnival. They had the opportunity to play cricket, AFL, basketball, volleyball and football at Coker Park in Cannington.
Citizenship and Multicultural Interests Minister Mike Nahan said events such as this offered an important opportunity to engage with children from diverse cultures.
"The annual Communicare Multicultural Schools Cup brings together children from different cultures to learn new sporting and social skills, and to build on the strengths of our diverse community," Dr Nahan said.
The Department of Sport and Recreation funds Communicare, as part of its Active Schools Project, to run the carnival.
The Active Schools Project uses sport to develop personal wellbeing, healthy living and to promote a greater sense of social inclusion and community belonging for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse youth and their families.
"Being active not only improves a young person's ability to learn, it also develops greater self-confidence and in the case of many of these students, has the added bonus of developing their English language skills," Ms Davies said.
"A carnival like this is a celebration of their newly attained sporting skills with plenty of healthy Aussie competition thrown in."
Fact File
Sport and Recreation Minister's office - 6552 5500
Citizenship and Multicultural Interests Minister's office - 6552 5700
